When guests come to Boston for meetings and events, they’re in for a delicious deep dive into the city’s food scene. At Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport, a creative culinary team designs interactive feasts that introduce attendees to the city’s beloved food traditions. Groups can savor those flavors on property, but also head out to explore Boston’s neighborhoods on guided food tours.
“Boston is a collection of neighborhoods,” says Yousef Ghalaini, Executive Chef and Culinary Director at Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport. “They all have such different flavors to them.”
His team collaborates with meeting and event planners early in the planning process, helping transform mood boards into memorable dining experiences. That might mean recreating a private raw bar where chefs shuck local clams and oysters to order while presenting fresh lobster steamed in house. For a nod to the Italian heritage of the city’s North End, the hotel’s chefs can prepare pasta in front of guests, serving casarecce (think a short, slightly twisted pasta that catches sauce beautifully) with local sweet Italian sausage, a broccoli rabe and pesto alongside pasta tossed in a classic red sauce fragrant with fresh garlic and basil.
On top of all that, the hotel’s perch in the energetic Seaport district—home to standout restaurants and lively ‘eatertainment’ venues that combine games and dining—also makes it an ideal launching point for large groups looking to add a little friendly competition to their gatherings or plan progressive dinners arranged by the hotel.
From memorable meals hosted at the hotel to embarking on a culinary tour through one of Boston’s storied neighborhoods to hosting an event in the Seaport, here are three of the best ways meetings and events groups can get a true taste of Boston.
Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport: Interactive Dining and Specialty Lobster Rolls
Boston’s storied food scene is anchored by its seafood traditions, shaped by centuries of fishing in the cold waters of the Atlantic and celebrated in iconic dishes like lobster rolls, oysters and creamy New England clam chowder.
Guests at Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport can explore these traditions in a variety of ways.
“The lobster rolls, for us in Boston, are sacred,” says Ghalaini, and the hotel’s restaurants offer a couple of distinctive preparations. Both are crafted with generous portions of Maine lobster piled into rolls sourced from local bakeries.
The first is a lemon-miso lobster roll made with a butter fondue and served at the Sporting Club, the hotel’s elevated sports bar known for its local and globally inspired dishes. The other is a salted caramel lobster roll served at Lifted Rooftop Restaurant and Bar, which sits high above Boston and is open year-round but becomes a summer hotspot thanks to its location next to the hotel’s rooftop pool.
“We finish it with a salted caramel and a sprinkle of Maldon sea salt,” he says. “The combination of lobster and caramel is wonderful because it really brings out the sweetness in the lobster.” That sweetness, he explains, can sometimes get lost when you start adding celery and onions and other savory ingredients in more traditional preparations, which gave way to the hotel’s creative rendition.
In addition to live raw bars and pasta-making stations, the culinary team at Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport can create a live sushi bar featuring poke and hand rolls, giving chefs the opportunity to showcase local tuna and talk with guests about what’s being caught nearby.
“We have some of the best bluefin tuna in the world being caught right off the Gloucester coast,” says Ghalaini, who is a recreational tuna fisherman. The team can also set up a torching station to create crispy rice topped with either local bluefin tuna or West Coast salmon.
Another popular option is a local seafood boil, with piles of lobster alongside clams, corn and sausage, a spread that is always a hit with guests.
Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport, which opened in 2021, has already welcomed many repeat meetings and group clients who appreciate the hotel’s highly customizable culinary experiences.
Learn about Boston Neighborhoods on Food Tours
Photo: Boston Seaport Website
Consider Boston a choose-your-own-culinary-adventure kind of city. While in town for meetings and events, groups can sample the destination’s culinary traditions on any number of tours, says Rachel Strauss, Senior Director of Sales, Boston, with Cohera, a destination event planning group that partners with Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport.
“Guests don't just want to sit around a table and eat dinner anymore—they want that interactive experience that makes the evening unique and really plays off the destination,” Strauss says.
Tours can be customized in fun ways, too, she says, with roving oyster shuckers and caviar service.
Some of Strauss’s include a classic Boston food tour that features everything from clam chowder and Boston cream pie to Boston baked beans and, of course, lobster rolls. The North End Food Tour, she says, is all about Italian flavors, with opportunities to sample pasta, pizza and cannoli.
One of our most popular off-site dining experiences is in the North End neighborhood where guests dine at a delicious Italian restaurant before making their way to Modern Bakery to learn the art of crafting the perfect espresso martini and finish the experience with a cannoli filling demonstration.
Groups can also arrange tours through many of Boston’s other neighborhoods.
“On these tours, guests will learn the history of the neighborhood they are exploring and how they have transformed into the modern era,” Strauss says. “Not only will they learn how food played a role in a neighborhood's expansion or popularity but also try some items from the most famous establishments as well like a cannoli from Mike's Pastry in the North End.”
Large Group Dining Options in the Seaport
Large groups staying at Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport also have the option to dine in and around the thriving Seaport district where the hotel is located. The neighborhood offers a growing number of group dining options and private dining rooms that range in size from 10 to 200 guests, says Cara Pratt, Chief Business Development Officer with Cohera.
Offsite but close to the hotel, one of the most memorable experiences her team has planned was an experiential progressive dinner for a group of 800 guests. The attendees were divided into smaller cohorts and rotated through activity-driven venues featuring ping pong, mini golf, bowling and darts.
“Each venue offered its own food, beverage and entertainment environment,” Pratt says. “Every hour, the groups rotated to the next venue while our team reset each space for the incoming cohort.”
The result was a dynamic dining experience that also became a powerful networking opportunity, as guests explored the neighborhood on foot and tried new activities at each stop in the Seaport.
The district showcases a newer side of Boston that many visitors, even repeat ones, may not have experienced yet. Its culinary scene is highly competitive, too, Pratt says, with many of Boston’s top restaurateurs, as well as notable names from outside the city, choosing to open locations here.
“This neighborhood is known to have more experiential restaurants with ‘built in entertainment’ which is what more and more of our groups are asking for,” Pratt says. “People are less interested in sitting down for a long dinner—they want to mingle and have reasons to meet and interact with new people and build strong connections which is what these experiential venues do.”